The Cult of True Womanhood: 1820-1860

Abstract

and railroads, at work long hours in a materialistic society. The religious values of his forebears were neglected in practice if not in intent, and he occasionally felt some guilt that he had turned this new land, this temple of the chosen people, into one vast countinghouse. But he could salve his conscience by reflecting that he had left behind a hostage, not only to fortune, but to all the values which he held so dear and treated so lightly. Woman, in the cult of True Womanhood' presented by the women's magazines, gift annuals and religious literature of the nineteenth century, was the hostage in the home.2 In a society where values changed fre-

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